Areas of Amygdala and Frontal Cortex in Outcome Learning

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议研究的目标是评估基底外侧杏仁核（BLA）和眶额皮质（OFC）在学习奖励价值变化中的作用。我将使用两种行为范式来解决这个问题。结果贬值涉及减少奖励价值配对其消费与胃病，和延迟奖励折扣减少奖励价值延迟交付。在这些任务中比较BLA或OFC损伤的影响将提供有关它们支持的奖励学习类型的信息。这是相关的，因为人类药物滥用者表现出决策障碍和冲动选择，除了OFC和BLA的代谢功能障碍。了解这些大脑区域如何参与学习奖励，将提供有关药物滥用者中断过程的信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the proposed research is to assess the role of the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in learning about changes in reward value. I will use two behavioral paradigms to address this issue. Outcome devaluation involves reducing reward value pairing its consumption with gastric illness, and delayed reward discounting reduces reward value by delaying its delivery. Comparing the effects of BLA or OFC lesions in these tasks will provide information about the types of reward learning that they support. This is relevant because human drug abusers exhibit decision-making impairments and impulsive choice, in addition to metabolic dysfunction of the OFC and BLA. Understanding how these brain regions are involved in learning about rewards will provide information about the processes disrupted in drug abusers.